Alastair Cook ended his 12-year-old Test career just the way he started it in 2006, with a fifty and a Test hundred in his final innings. With that century, Cook became only the 5th player to score a hundred in first and last Test match of career.
Considered to be the greatest England opener, Alastair Cook holds a variety of records in his 161-Test career. Let's have a look at the number of records he created and broke in these 12 years.
Records which Alastair Cook holds in Test cricket -
2 - Alastair Cook is the only second player after Bruce Mitchell to score 50 plus runs in both innings of the debut and in the last Test match of career.
50 plus scores in both innings of the debut and last Test match -
Bruce Mitchell (SA) - 88 & 61* vs ENG And 99 & 56 vs ENG
ALASTAIR COOK (ENG) - 60 & 104* vs IND And 71 & 147 vs IND
5 - Alastair Cook became the only 5th player to score hundred in first as well as last Test match of career.
Players to score hundreds in first and last Test match of career -
Reggie Duff (Australia) - 104 (First Test) & 146 (last Test)
Bill Ponsford (Australia) - 110 & 266
Greg Chappell (Australia) - 108 & 182
Mohammed Azharuddin (India) - 110 & 102
ALASTAIR COOK (England) - 104* & 147
33 - Number of hundreds Alastair Cook made in his Test career - the most for England.
159 - Alastair Cook played 159 consecutive Test matches - the most consecutive Test appearances by any player in the world.
161 - Number of Tests Alastair Cook played - The most Test appearance for England.
175 - Alastair Cook has taken 175 catches in Test cricket - the most by any English fielder.
11845 - Alastair Cook scored 11845 runs as an opener in Test cricket - the most by any opener in the world.
Most Test runs as an opener -
ALASTAIR COOK - 11845
Sunil Gavaskar - 9607
Graeme Smith - 9030
Matthew Hayden - 8625
Virender Sehwag - 8207
12472 - Alastair Cook scored 12472 runs in Test cricket - the most for England.
12472 - Alastair Cook scored the most runs by any left-handed batsman in Test cricket. Second in the list is Kumar Sangakkara's tally of 12400 runs in 134 Tests.